Marietta Daily Journal

GOP invites ICE official to D.C. after brushoff

…The congressmen, at the urging of anti-illegal immigration activist D.A. King of Marietta, asked ICE in an Oct. 13 letter to speed up the implementation of the fingerprinting program called Secure Communities. — But in a Nov. 17 response, Elliot Williams, ICE’s assistant director for congressional relations, indicated ICE would not grant the request…

HERE

Katie Pavlich — Townhall.com

Welcome to the Mindset of an Open Border Radical (No, not Jerry Gonzalez, a different open borders radical)

Isabel Garcia, a Pima County legal defender supported by the taxpayer dime and director of radical open-border group Derechos Humanos in Tucson, Ariz. was recently at the University of Arizona trying to sell the DREAM Act while tearing down American values and disregarding the rule of law, all while playing the race card…

HERE

( NOTE FROM D.A. – What the AJC piece is telling us on 287(g):

* “I’m very pleased with the program so far,” Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway said. “It has saved the county millions of dollars.”

* Many offenders had committed serious and violent crimes, including aggravated assault (73), rape (28), aggravated child molestation (24) and felony drug charges (267).

* They came from countries far and near, like Jamaica (11), India (3), Germany (2) and Brazil (5). However, the majority of the offenders hailed from Central and South American countries, such as Mexico (2,053), Honduras (276), Guatemala (270) and El Salvador (169).
715 of the offenders, or 24 percent of the Gwinnett inmates detained for ICE, had returned to the United States after already being removed from the country at least once.

* A total of 1,408 inmates ultimately were removed from the country after being arrested in Gwinnett between November 2009 and November 2010, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for ICE.

* “…jail officials have compared the number of foreign-born inmates who were jailed during the first year of 287(g) with foreign-born inmates jailed the previous year and found a 28 percent decline. The difference between the two years was 4,289 inmates.’ (ENFORCEMENT WORKS and 287(g) is a deterrent)

* Conway estimated a little over half of foreign-born inmates were in the country illegally. He believes the decline in foreign-born inmates is a direct result of illegal immigrants leaving Gwinnett or ceasing to drive to avoid being jailed and deported. Lilburn Police Chief John Davidson said the program probably has made the county safer.”Obviously, if 1,400 offenders are gone from our community, that is going to have an overall impact on crime,” Davidson said.)

AJC

10 December, 2010

Andria Simmons

Gwinnett program results in 1,400 deportations

A controversial program to identify illegal immigrants in the Gwinnett County Jail has been in operation a little more than a year, and officials say the program already is saving money and bed space.

So far, deputies have identified 3,034 inmates who were in the United States illegally, about half of whom ultimately were removed from the country after immigration proceedings.

“I’m very pleased with the program so far,” Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway said. “It has saved the county millions of dollars.”

As part of the county’s participation in a local-federal partnership called the 287(g) program, which officially began in November 2009, 18 sheriff’s deputies were trained to enforce certain federal immigration laws. Inmates suspected of being in the country illegally are turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after their cases are disposed of. ICE then will initiate deportation proceedings against them. The detainees still have the opportunity to go before an immigration judge to plead their case.

Statistics offer an interesting snapshot of the types of offenders the program netted in its first year:

Many offenders had committed serious and violent crimes, including aggravated assault (73), rape (28), aggravated child molestation (24) and felony drug charges (267).
They came from countries far and near, like Jamaica (11), India (3), Germany (2) and Brazil (5). However, the majority of the offenders hailed from Central and South American countries, such as Mexico (2,053), Honduras (276), Guatemala (270) and El Salvador (169).
715 of the offenders, or 24 percent of the Gwinnett inmates detained for ICE, had returned to the United States after already being removed from the country at least once.

Jail statistics also do little to dispel one of the main complaints about such local law enforcement partnerships with ICE. Despite the 287(g) program’s stated goal of deporting criminal illegal immigrants who pose a danger to public safety, it often nets minor offenders. About 470 inmates who were detained for ICE were charged with driving without a license, and 1,264 were charged with some other traffic violation. That’s almost half the total number of detainees from Gwinnett.

Conway said that, per ICE policy, inmates are classified under a three-level priority scheme depending on the seriousness of the offense they committed. However, so far Gwinnett has not released any inmates suspected of being illegal immigrants because they committed a low-level offense. That’s because ICE has had enough bed space to accommodate them all, Conway said.

A total of 1,408 inmates ultimately were removed from the country after being arrested in Gwinnett between November 2009 and November 2010, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for ICE.

It’s impossible to determine whether fewer illegal immigrants are being jailed since the program started, because deputies were unable to check the immigration status of inmates prior to November 2009.

However, jail officials have compared the number of foreign-born inmates who were jailed during the first year of 287(g) with foreign-born inmates jailed the previous year and found a 28 percent decline. The difference between the two years was 4,289 inmates.

While the average length of stay in the jail is 11 days, Conway said, if those 4,289 inmates had stayed only two days (the amount of time inmates are typically held for misdemeanor offenses) at a cost of $45 per day, they would have cost the county $386,010. Had they stayed 11 days, he said, it would have cost the county $2.1 million.

Conway estimated a little over half of foreign-born inmates were in the country illegally.

He believes the decline in foreign-born inmates is a direct result of illegal immigrants leaving Gwinnett or ceasing to drive to avoid being jailed and deported.

Lilburn Police Chief John Davidson said the program probably has made the county safer.

“Obviously, if 1,400 offenders are gone from our community, that is going to have an overall impact on crime,” Davidson said. “These are people that came into contact with the sheriff because they were committing some sort of criminal offense.”

Pro-immigrant groups have been critical of the 287(g) program, and Gwinnett’s partnership is no exception. Opponents say the program promotes racial profiling, tears apart families and causes distrust between law enforcement and the immigrant communities they are tasked with policing. The ACLU has called for the Obama administration to end the program, saying it is fundamentally flawed.

“I think the whole system encourages racial profiling,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, a spokeswoman for the ACLU of Georgia. “The stated purpose is to go after the most serious offenders and to make our community safer, but in some situations it’s not really clear why people are being pulled over in the first place.”

Pro-immigrant organizations have pushed for an anti-racial profiling law in Georgia that would require law enforcement agencies to collect and report arrest data, including the ethnicity of those arrested. However, that effort was unsuccessful.

“No law enforcement agency in Gwinnett County is racial profiling,” Conway said. “People are going to jail because they are breaking the law.”

Salvador, a 26-year-old Doraville resident who asked to be identified only by his first name because he is an illegal immigrant and fears deportation, said his 27-year-old stepbrother, Hiram Huerta-Fraga, was deported Oct. 4 after being arrested by Gwinnett police for driving without a license. Huerta-Fraga was pulled over for a brake light violation, police said.

“If they see you are Hispanic they just pull you over because they know you will not have a license,” Salvador said. “They are just pulling random people for no reason at all.”

Salvador, who has a job with an office installation company, said he and his brother were brought into the United States by their father when they were 12 and 13 years old respectively. He said many childhood immigrants like him are willing to work hard and would gladly pay a fee for a path to citizenship.

“I love this country and I want to be here,” Salvador said. “I don’t think it’s fair they get to decide what happens to your life after they pull you over. It’s just like playing the lottery every day. You never know when you’re going to get pulled over.”

The Gwinnett sheriff’s office is one of only five Georgia law enforcement agencies participating in 287(g). The others are the Cobb, Hall and Whitfield County sheriff’s offices and the Georgia Department of Public Safety. Not surprisingly, Gwinnett, which has the largest Hispanic population in the state, identified the largest number of illegal immigrants in its jail during the 2010 federal fiscal year.

According to ICE, Cobb had 2,023, Hall 755, Whitfield 581 and the Georgia Department of Public Safety had nine.

Several other Georgia law enforcement agencies, including the Roswell Police Department and the Cherokee and Forsyth sheriff’s departments, have asked to join the program. However, ICE has not approved any new programs in Georgia in 2010, citing funding issues.

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) supports 287(g) and hopes to one day expand it.

“The 287(g) program is a great program and it works hand in glove with the Secure Communities initiative,” Gingrey said. “I think both those programs are necessary. I would like to see every county participate.” HERE

(Note from D.A. – we thank Ms. Julia Preston of the NY Times for a fair, accurate and balanced report – while noting that no one is deported from the USA for a traffic offense. The singular reason for deportation is violation of American immigration laws)

Some Unlicensed Drivers Risk More Than a Fine

By JULIA PRESTON and ROBERT GEBELOFF
December 9, 2010

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — It was just another suburban fender-bender. A car zoomed into an intersection and braked too late to stop at a red light. The Georgia woman driving it, an American citizen, left with a wrecked auto, a sore neck and a traffic fine.

DETAINED Felipa Leonor Valencia, a Gwinnett County homeowner from Mexico facing deportation, was reunited in October with her daughter, Crystal, 16, and left, and niece Stephanie, 7.

But for Felipa Leonor Valencia, the Mexican woman who was driving the Jeep that was hit that day in March, the damage went far beyond a battered bumper. The crash led Ms. Valencia, an illegal immigrant who did not have a valid driver’s license, to 12 days in detention and the start of deportation proceedings — after 17 years of living in Georgia.

Like Ms. Valencia, an estimated 4.5 million illegal immigrants nationwide are driving regularly, most without licenses, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Only three states — New Mexico, Utah and Washington — currently issue licenses without proof of legal residence in the United States.

Many states have adopted tough new laws to prevent illegal immigrants from driving, while expanding immigration enforcement by the state and local police. As a result, at least 30,000 illegal immigrants who were stopped for common traffic violations in the last three years have ended up in deportation, Department of Homeland Security figures show. The numbers are rapidly increasing, aggravating tensions in the national debate over immigration.

The tensions seem likely to persist. The Senate may take up a bill next week that would give legal status to some illegal immigrant students. Its fate is uncertain, and prospects appear dim for a controversial overhaul, supported by President Obama, that would give legal status to 11 million illegal immigrants. In the absence of federal action, states are stepping in, trying their own solutions.

In Georgia, voters have been worried about unlicensed illegal immigrants whose driving skills are untested and who often lack insurance, including some who caused well-publicized accidents. Lawmakers have tightened requirements to keep illegal immigrants from obtaining licenses and license plates, and have increased penalties for driving without them.

“There are certain things you can’t do in the state of Georgia if you are an illegal immigrant,” said State Senator Chip Rogers, a Republican who was a prime mover behind some of the traffic measures. “One of them is, you can’t drive.”

Many Georgia counties have begun to cooperate formally with the Department of Homeland Security, so that illegal immigrants detained by the local police are turned over more consistently to federal immigration authorities.

Still, according to The Times’s analysis, 200,000 illegal immigrants in Georgia are driving to work daily. For them, the new laws mean that any police stop, whether for a violation that caused an accident, or for a broken taillight or another driver’s mistake, can lead to deportation. Since 2006, thousands of immigrants, mostly from Latin America, have been deported from Georgia after traffic violations, often shaking up long-settled families.

The stepped-up enforcement has been applauded by many citizens. It has also antagonized the fast-growing Hispanic communities in and near Atlanta, where residents say the police are singling them out for traffic stops.

Illegal immigrants say they continue to risk driving without a license in order to keep their jobs.

“We have to work to support our kids, so we have to drive,” Ms. Valencia said in Spanish, after she was released on a $7,500 bond in late October from an immigration detention center in Alabama to begin her legal fight against deportation. “If we drive, we get stopped by the police. The first thing they ask is, ‘Can I see your license?’ ‘Don’t have one? Go to jail.’ And from jail to deportation.”

… MUCH MORE HERE

ENFORCEMENT & 287 (g) works…and serves to help save lives of Hispanic drivers HERE from the New York Times.

The Georgia G-7 have sent a reply to John Morton. Sort of a “come on up and explain yourselves” invitation.

Yesterday’s letter linked HERE. Sorry I didn’t post when it was sent to us yesterday!

We are very proud of DIS role in getting this conversation started…we hope the anti-enforcement crazies at the ACLU’s Georgia Detention Watch appreciate it as well!

For background and previous posts on this see HERE

ADDED 12:40: Resulting AJC story

Georgia congressmen seek meeting with ICE chief
Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) – Jeremy Redmon

“Still steaming over the pace of a federal program targeting illegal immigration, seven Republican congressmen from Georgia have invited the head of US …”

HERE

Reid Pulls DREAM Act from the FLOOR;

Plans to Force Vote on House Version!

In a desperate attempt to keep the DREAM Act bill alive, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) today moved to table the cloture vote on the Senate version of the DREAM Act (S.3992). Reid’s goal in doing this was to buy amnesty advocates time so they could bring up the House version of the DREAM Act (H.R.5281), which passed the House last night by a vote of 216-198. On the floor this morning, Senator Reid congratulated the House for passing the DREAM act the night before. He then said there was no point for the Senate to vote on the Senate bill when they could instead vote on the House bill and send it directly to the President’s desk. At 11am, when the cloture vote was scheduled on S.3992, Senator Reid moved to table the cloture vote. Reid’s motion to table – which only requires 50 to pass – passed 59 to 40.

Senator Reid’s move was also a tacit acknowledgment that he did not have the votes to pass the Senate version of the DREAM Act. Most news outlets on Capitol Hill were predicting the bill would fail. Now open borders advocates are scrambling for the possibility of the Senate bringing up the House version and are desperately trying to garner more support.

Stay tuned for more information….

Susan Tully

National Field Director

(202)328-7004

FAIR

Federation for American Immigration Reform

25 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Suite 330

Washington D.C. 20001

www.fairus.org

Check out our

FAIR on-line University

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/fair_university

HERE

NRO The Corner

10-Year Work Permits for Millions
December 8, 2010
By Mark Krikorian

Roy Beck of Numbers USA lays out the jobs-related implications of the DREAM Act in a way I hadn’t really considered:

When the House and Senate (presumably) vote this afternoon, I think it is important to frame the issue in terms of giving out millions of additional 10-year work permits.

You see, even people who don’t qualify in the first place or who do qualify for the provisional amnesty but never meet the educational criteria later — all of them can get a 10-year work permit from the start.

So, at a time of nearly 10 percent unemployment, we’re talking about giving the right to compete with American and legal-immigrant workers to maybe 2 million people who legitimately would qualify under DREAM, plus maybe another couple of million who appear to be in the right age range to lie plausibly to get the 10-year conditional status. And after 10 years, then what?:

At the end of 10 years, illegal aliens who have not compiled two years of college or military would finally lose the right to compete legally with unemployed Americans for a job.

But they also would have sunk 10 more years of roots into their communities, building up an even bigger claim that it would be a hardship to be forced to leave this country. In addition, their advocates in the open-borders groups can say that they aren’t really illegal aliens since they have just spent 10 years living and working as legal residents.

And it’s not just that they’d be able to claim such hardship in MSM sob stories:

Fortunately for them, the DREAM amnesty allows those who fail to meet any of the criteria after 10 years to file a claim of hardship. The US Citizenship & Immigration Services agency is given the right to issue waivers and allow these illegal aliens to stay. By the way, they can get a waiver if the hardship is to them, or if it would be to a spouse, one of their children or one of their parents.

In the end, it is not only the 2 million potential qualified opening applicants but millions of potential fraudulent applicants who will get 10 years of legal competition against unemployed Americans. The only way the frauds can lose their work permit is if the government brings individualized cases to prove that they lied on the applications. Want to guess how many of the millions of fraud cases the government would have time to investigate and prosecute — one by one?

Congress needs to finally drive a stake through the heart of the amnesty issue today, so we get about the work of putting in place the tools (like E-Verify and Secure Communities and exit tracking) to continue shrinking the illegal-immigrant population. HERE

Kimberly Dvorak — The Examiner

More DREAM Act inaccuracies – California colleges full

Lawmakers, advocacy groups and members of the media have been touting a lot of facts and monetary figures regarding the proposed immigration bill called the DREAM Act. And to make matters worse, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has introduced four different versions of the bill, hoping one will find favor with members of Congress…

HERE